What Were the Causes of the Russian Revolution

Before the war.

Before the war, there were lots of problems

which led up to the revolution and we call them

the long term causes. The peasants working and

living conditions were very bad but the

government made it even worse by its own

policies. Russia needed to develop its industries,

so that it was a modern agricultural country

instead of a backward one and also to remain in

an important military power. To aid this dilemma

the government invested in enormous amounts of

money in improving Russia's industries. Where

did most of this money come from? From the

pockets of the people in Russia!

To do this, the peasants had to pay huge taxes

not only on grain but on nearly all everyday items

such as alcohol and salt! Nevertheless, the

workers' wages still stayed very low and did not

increase much at all as the government wanted

to squeeze the people for every penny they could

get to put into industrial development. Soon later,

all seemed well, iron and steel industries grew

rapidly but then thousands of workers lost their

jobs. This was a cause for strikes and rebellions

against managers and the government. Also,

things were not going very well in the country

side. As if being taxed for all you were worth

wasn't enough, there were very bad harvests for

a couple of years so now they were starving as

well! To return the favour, the peasants became

violent and started to burn landlords' houses.

Then the Tzar went to war with Japan which he

thought would make the public believe in the

government again. However, it backfired on him

and caused all the same problems again but by a

greater degree. That really infuriated the people!

Leading up to the war the peasants and workers

still had:

*Inadequate clothing

*Insufficient and unhealthy food

*Long, hard hours at work

*Inadequate housing/shelter

*Self-made entertainment

*Impoverished standard of life

*Very low quality of life

*Age of death-early 20's-30's.

These were the huge differences in the quality of

life between the rich and the poor as the rich

had:

*More than adequate clothing

*More than adequate food

*Lived on rising and unearned income

*Entertainment was provided for them

*Excellent standard of life

*More than excellent quality of life

*Age of death-late 50's, 60's and above

In these years leading up to the war, as you can

see, the living standard of the peasants and

workers did not improve as so they were forced

to rise up against these massive inadequacies!!

Politically, Russia was very unstable as the

people had lost a lot of respect for the

government and the Tzar. When the Tzar started

to use the Dumas people began to wonder

whether they would have any real power. By the

Dumas first meeting it was clear. They could not

pass laws, they could not appoint ministers and

they could not control finance in such important

areas as defence. Was there much point in them

if the Tzar did not like what they were doing or

proposing to do, he could dissolve them?? So, no.

In my opinion the peoples views were not being

heard through the Dumas. There are lots of

opinions as whether the Tzar was fit to rule

Russia. In my opinion, the Tzar was not fit to rule

Russia but this was by no means his own fault.

He was taught as a soldier and he was not taught

to act and behave like a king so it was his

statesmanship that was at fault, not him himself!!

The War.

The war did not only effect the army but the

people at home. Food was getting short, all the

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